Picking easiest rotations for easy evals...Will this bite me in the ass later on

[opthalmoplegia]

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Hey guys,

So i am interested in either Anesthesia or Rads...since our school doesn't have its own hospital we rotate at different community hospitals throughout the area. Some are hard to get good evals at, some are very easy to get good evals at but no real good teaching and no residents to deal with. I've been doing my rotations at the easiest hospitals and it has been a vacation. I have hardly worked more than 8 hours a day and I usually work 4-6 hours a day at the most. For my surgery rotation, I worked 8 hour days with an hour of lunch in between.

My question is will this bite me in the ass later on? I know i may be a ****ty intern, but atleast I'll hopefully be a ****ty intern with a good residency spot assuming i do well on these shelf exams...?

 

[Jervix]

Simply because you're at an "easy" site doesn't mean you should not put in effort. Assert yourself, ask for greater responsibility and produce. You will be more likely to learn more, gain more trust and truly earn those great marks.

 

[KnuxNole]

Honestly, I don't think it would look bad. You ideally should be thankful to be having 8 hour surgery days(especially since you KNOW you don't wanna pursue that career), and use these good evals as a positive thing. Your shelf exams are gonna depend on how well you know the info, and I assume having much more time = more time to study. Like the above poster said, even though it's "easy", if someone comes off as lazy and showing that they don't put in effort, that could blow away the high eval marks, and thus screwing someone over. But, I assume that you are hard working regardless! Even if it's shorter hours, the hours they do see you is where you shine.

I don't think that having an easy rotation is gonna hurt someone vs. a hard rotation if the eval that is written is strong. Some of the hard places might not have good teaching too.

 

[MilkmanAl]

One thing you'll figure out pretty quickly is that hours at your clinical site and learning don't correlate very well. I worked 30 hours in 3 weeks on my GYN rotation and did and learned way more than most people who worked 6 times that. Do the "easy" rotations.

 

[TXKnight]

One thing you'll figure out pretty quickly is that hours at your clinical site and learning don't correlate very well. I worked 30 hours in 3 weeks on my GYN rotation and did and learned way more than most people who worked 6 times that. Do the "easy" rotations.

Lowly premed here...have a question for you mIlkman. How do you know you actually learned more than many others who worked much more? Is it by talking to other students or how can you gauge that?
Honest question, just interested in knowing...

 

[Siggy]

Here's another way that the OP can look at it. Preceptor evaluations are important, and if it's a high workload environment, then it might be easier for the OP to separate himself from the crowd during the rotation (better eval) by working harder.

Lowly premed here...have a question for you mIlkman. How do you know you actually learned more than many others who worked much more? Is it by talking to other students or how can you gauge that?
Honest question, just interested in knowing...

Talking with other students. Not all students learn the same way... not all work is equally educational.

 

[KnuxNole]

Exactly. Time spent in the hospital is NOT indicative of how much learning you get, how much you'll see, whatever. In some cases, someone who is in a hospital for 10 hours might get very little(or no) teaching or doesn't do much, while someone who is in a hospital for 6 hours has seen several patients, wrote notes, got constructive feedback on their presentation, assessment and plans, got an impromptu lecture from an attending about a disease their patient has, and maybe got to watch(or assist) on a procedure or two.

 

[ArcGurren]

I was at my family medicine site for maybe 6 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. I learned more during that than I ever did on my peds rotation where it was 7-5 every day most days.

Quality, not quantity.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Lowly premed here...have a question for you mIlkman. How do you know you actually learned more than many others who worked much more? Is it by talking to other students or how can you gauge that?
Honest question, just interested in knowing...

I did more procedures and exams than just about everyone. They were involved in more things but almost always just stood around and watched. Word of mouth is generally how you find out about what goes on in rotations since no course coordinator is going to tell you, "Those of you at this location for gyn are going to spend a whole lot of time at the hospital and shadow all day. Those of you at this other location will work 10-15 hours a week but have hands-on training the whole time."

edit: By the way, you'll find that the higher-ups don't advertise the rotations with short hours very often because a lot of people do, in fact, associate longer hours with better learning, for whatever reason. I think you'll find that notion to be far from true when you start clinicals.

 

[peppy]

My question is will this bite me in the ass later on? I know i may be a ****ty intern, but atleast I'll hopefully be a ****ty intern with a good residency spot assuming i do well on these shelf exams...?

Yes, being a ****ty intern totally could come back to haunt you. I have heard stories of people who came from the lowest-level DO schools and offshore schools struggling as interns because they didn't have good clinical exposure, sometimes getting fired over it. If you were to get fired from your internship, you would probably lose your advanced residency, so your performance as an intern does matter even if you intend to never again touch a real patient PGY-2 on.

You don't have to work long hours, but I DO think that it is concerning if you're getting minimal teaching and no exposure to residents. Everyone expects interns to be a little lost at first, but if you truly have NO idea what you're doing, it's going to look really bad and you could end up in trouble with your program. Sure,there's nothing wrong with not wanting to work long hours, but you should make an effort to find some rotations where you can observe residents and get some teaching.

 

[ArcGurren]

Yes, being a ****ty intern totally could come back to haunt you. I have heard stories of people who came from the lowest-level DO schools and offshore schools struggling as interns because they didn't have good clinical exposure, sometimes getting fired over it. If you were to get fired from your internship, you would probably lose your advanced residency, so your performance as an intern does matter even if you intend to never again touch a real patient PGY-2 on.

You don't have to work long hours, but I DO think that it is concerning if you're getting minimal teaching and no exposure to residents. Everyone expects interns to be a little lost at first, but if you truly have NO idea what you're doing, it's going to look really bad and you could end up in trouble with your program. Sure,there's nothing wrong with not wanting to work long hours, but you should make an effort to find some rotations where you can observe residents and get some teaching.

Whatever bro let him work harder on his sub-I. I don't know when you were a med student last but you should remember that being a third year rotating student is not even close to the same as being an intern or resident

 

[opthalmoplegia]

Whatever bro let him work harder on his sub-I. I don't know when you were a med student last but you should remember that being a third year rotating student is not even close to the same as being an intern or resident

Exactly my thoughts...I'm doing my subi after January and I am doing it at the worst inner city hospital. So, hopefully that grade won't count in my ERAS. And I won't be a total crappy resident.

As a student, I am not totally lazy and incompetent. I have been complimented quite frequently on my knowledge base and thorough histories (way too thorough according to some physicians).

I did a rotation in in the beginning of year where I did bust ass, put in a ton of hours, and didn't do quite well on the shelf exam. So I just said eff it, I'll pick the easiest rotations and spend more time studying for shelves than busting ass in the clinics because it is the shelf that essentially determines your final grade at my school.

 

[todds]

Hey guys,

So i am interested in either Anesthesia or Rads...since our school doesn't have its own hospital we rotate at different community hospitals throughout the area. Some are hard to get good evals at, some are very easy to get good evals at but no real good teaching and no residents to deal with. I've been doing my rotations at the easiest hospitals and it has been a vacation. I have hardly worked more than 8 hours a day and I usually work 4-6 hours a day at the most. For my surgery rotation, I worked 8 hour days with an hour of lunch in between.

My question is will this bite me in the ass later on? I know i may be a ****ty intern, but atleast I'll hopefully be a ****ty intern with a good residency spot assuming i do well on these shelf exams...?

As others have said, it depends on what you are doing in that time.

The best thing would be to work at "hard" hospitals where you are encourage to work and think on your own and being taught from there and mentored. Obviously the more patients you independent work up and think about and then taught on, the better. The worst thing would be work at "hard" hospital and be an observer for the most part and have little time to read.

So take the opportunities where you are actually the one being most like a doctor and have someone there to correct you and help you. Sometimes this is at a community hospital with no residents, sometimes this is at university hospital with lots of residents. Sometime it just depends on the rotation.

Take home point is # of patients independently seen/thought of and then read up/taught on counts the most rather than hours per se.

Having said that, at my medical school, we also had "hard" and "easy" hospital sites, and uniformly, the ones from the "easy" hospital sites were the worst subI's. When they stayed on for residency, they were the absolute worst interns. They were sometimes worse than medical students. This can work very negatively against you not only for your career, but as I have seen it can mess up a patient's life too, so at the very least think about that.

Even if you're going to be in rads/anesthesia, as an intern, you will be responsible for someone and you may not have a hand nearby to hold.

 

[viper930]

Simply because you're at an "easy" site doesn't mean you should not put in effort. Assert yourself, ask for greater responsibility and produce. You will be more likely to learn more, gain more trust and truly earn those great marks.

You managed to embody all that I hate the most in one sentence. Third year and the subjective evals that come with it are, 90% of the time, worthless because of overly-enthusiastic medical students that go early and stay late to do as much scut as possible regardless of actual correlation with learning. I learned the most on the rotations where I had time to relax and read on my own. I learned the least on rotations where students like you were begging for more after people crap in your mouth.

 

[colbgw02]

If you're interested in anesthesia or radiology, then intern year is something to survive. So, unless you think that these easy rotations may cause you to fail internship (unlikely), I wouldn't worry about it too much. Meanwhile, be thankful that these great evaluations may make you competitive for a residency that might otherwise be out of reach.

 

[peppy]

Whatever bro let him work harder on his sub-I. I don't know when you were a med student last but you should remember that being a third year rotating student is not even close to the same as being an intern or resident

So you don't think that the knowledge you're supposed to be getting as an MS3 has any relationship to being a decent intern?
I didn't say that the guy should sign up for all the intensive, hours-heavy rotations - but if he is just shadowing attendings and not really getting any teaching or opportunities to do work alongside residents, I think that's a problem. It's not going to look good when he's up against people who had real clinical exposure/teaching as MS3s.

It's a lot harder to shine on your sub-I if you don't spend MS3 developing your experience and knowledge.

 

[KnuxNole]

You managed to embody all that I hate the most in one sentence. Third year and the subjective evals that come with it are, 90% of the time, worthless because of overly-enthusiastic medical students that go early and stay late to do as much scut as possible regardless of actual correlation with learning. I learned the most on the rotations where I had time to relax and read on my own. I learned the least on rotations where students like you were begging for more after people crap in your mouth.

Those students are in the minority. Maybe I'm lucky and didn't have to deal with overly eager med students, and instead had normal people, who just liked to work hard.

 

[KnuxNole]

So you don't think that the knowledge you're supposed to be getting as an MS3 has any relationship to being a decent intern?
I didn't say that the guy should sign up for all the intensive, hours-heavy rotations - but if he is just shadowing attendings and not really getting any teaching or opportunities to do work alongside residents, I think that's a problem. It's not going to look good when he's up against people who had real clinical exposure/teaching as MS3s.

It's a lot harder to shine on your sub-I if you don't spend MS3 developing your experience and knowledge.

The thing is, being a MS3 is laughable compared to being an actual resident. A Sub-I might be different, but you have no responsibilities as a little tiny med student. I agree that you should learn a lot and try to get the most out of rotations, but I think the level is gonna be a big jump from med student to being an intern.

 

[mimelim]

The thing is, being a MS3 is laughable compared to being an actual resident. A Sub-I might be different, but you have no responsibilities as a little tiny med student. I agree that you should learn a lot and try to get the most out of rotations, but I think the level is gonna be a big jump from med student to being an intern.

In my experience as a medical student and now as a resident, students get as much responsibility as they demonstrate that they can handle. I was on surgery in January/February of my MS3 year and took the team pager when the intern was off on a couple of services. Obviously, all of the orders had to come from one of the fellows/senior residents, but I'd say 50%+ of the calls I could take care of as a medical student.

We don't have many medical students here, but if someone shows aptitude and interest I'm going to keep giving them responsibility until they tell me to stop or they demonstrate that they can't handle it. Personal opinion, but that is how people learn best.

 

[JustPlainBill]

You are screwing no one but yourself by being a slacker, McFly

Seriously -- it's your education and your life -- at some point, you will have to learn this well enough to take care of patients on your own and bear that responsibility. How you choose to use the protected environment of medical school/residency training is up to you.....

By taking the easy rotations with no real responsibility and/or stress just to score a good eval for a good residency -- that's fine, but you can bet your glutes that you had better be able to perform up to the level of the other interns or it's gonna be sharkbait time for you.....

Now, if you're disciplined enough to read up on cases, memorize the standard stuff -- even in a TY, you'll be doing some medicine -- to be sure you know WTF to do for a GI bleed, ACS, CP r/o, COPD exac, etc.....remember how to take a good H&P and do a decent physicial the same way all the time, no exceptions...in other words, get ready to be a no bull**** physician.....then go ahead and take the cruise rotations and use the time to get ready.....

Again, you are only screwing yourself -- it's your education and you don't want to be sitting in your PDs office, explaining poor performance with $200K of debt and your heuvos in his hands as he squeezes them velly, velly tightly.....and you watch your chance at licensure slide closer and closer into the void.....

 

[MilkmanAl]

I think that's a tad on the overblown side. I'm in anesthesia residency, and I did next to nothing to prepare me for this year of medicine internship I'm currently suffering through. My sub-I was at the VA, and I didn't learn much other than how to manage COPD and alcohol detox. Other than that, I had 3 anesthesia rotations, and 3 other rotations that I hardly ever had to go to. I can't say the transition to intern year was an easy one, but I've never felt swamped or in over my head due to knowledge issues. If you make the most of your time in whatever rotation you're on, you're going to be more than fine.

 

[45408]

Whatever bro let him work harder on his sub-I. I don't know when you were a med student last but you should remember that being a third year rotating student is not even close to the same as being an intern or resident

Whatever bro it's not like you're going to have lives in your hands as an intern.

I'm not hear to sing the praise of working 5a-8p every day, writing a thousand notes, seeing ten thousand patients, and scrubbing every case on God's green earth, but if you breeze through M3, you're not going to be a good sub-I, and you're definitely not going to be a good intern. I appreciate the conflicting balance of studying to do well on the shelf exam and being in the hospital to get as much clinical exposure as you can, but you still have to strike a balance.

That third year med student is going to be an M4 (who really only has 3-4 "real" rotations most of the time), who will suddenly be the intern getting the call that Mr. So-n-so is now satting in the 60s, what do you want to do?

 

[ArcGurren]

Whatever bro it's not like you're going to have lives in your hands as an intern.

I'm not hear to sing the praise of working 5a-8p every day, writing a thousand notes, seeing ten thousand patients, and scrubbing every case on God's green earth, but if you breeze through M3, you're not going to be a good sub-I, and you're definitely not going to be a good intern. I appreciate the conflicting balance of studying to do well on the shelf exam and being in the hospital to get as much clinical exposure as you can, but you still have to strike a balance.

That third year med student is going to be an M4 (who really only has 3-4 "real" rotations most of the time), who will suddenly be the intern getting the call that Mr. So-n-so is now satting in the 60s, what do you want to do?

I seriously doubt simply being able to do more scutwork as an M3 is going to help you be a better sub-I. That appears to be the primary difference between the two hospitals the OP was talking about. The actual scutwork part is easy to pick up on. I didn't have to do a lot of it as a third year, but as a sub-I I figured out how to do it the first couple of days and from thereon it's a breeze.

Your example of the guy de-satting is somewhat ridiculous; there are interns who can barely handle that sort of situation when they start off, let alone an M3. And it's also beyond the point - you can learn to pick up on that sort of thing as an M3 but your sub-I should be about getting you exposed to it, not your M3 rotation.

 

[45408]

I seriously doubt simply being able to do more scutwork as an M3 is going to help you be a better sub-I.

Highly dependent on what you're calling "scutwork." Talking to the social worker about a painful discharge? Sure, not that hard. Managing to see half a dozen patients in the morning, coming up with a good plan, writing all their notes, rounding with the team, calling all the consults, getting everyone discharged, then taking new admissions? Yes, learning to do that as an M3 will make you a better sub-I will make you a better intern will make you a better senior resident.

That appears to be the primary difference between the two hospitals the OP was talking about. The actual scutwork part is easy to pick up on. I didn't have to do a lot of it as a third year, but as a sub-I I figured out how to do it the first couple of days and from thereon it's a breeze.

He didn't say that anywhere. He just said that he worked long hours on one rotation and did poorly on the shelf, so now he's going for shorter hours, since the shelf determines his grade. It does not, however, determine your clinical acumen.

Your example of the guy de-satting is somewhat ridiculous; there are interns who can barely handle that sort of situation when they start off, let alone an M3. And it's also beyond the point - you can learn to pick up on that sort of thing as an M3 but your sub-I should be about getting you exposed to it, not your M3 rotation.

I had two sub-Is that were one month each. You had better not be relying on just those two months to learn all the things that you could have been learning as an M3. Just what exactly do you think an M3 should be learning?

 

[ijn]

It's not like that at every school. ****, I'm almost half way through it and I haven't had to write a single discharge summary. Medical students calling consults? They'd tell me to put the doctor on the phone. I do H&Ps and progress notes that no one reads. Who the **** does anything based on a plan written by an M3? What resident or attending has time to sit down and read that ****? They cosign it and move on a second later.

Right now I basically shadow the surgeon during clinic and act as a glorified permanent retractor while in the OR. I round in the morning on his inpatients and write notes that he doesn't read. It seems like a lot of 3rd years on this forum think they actually do something of value for the team. Maybe my experience is aberrant.

 

[Siggy]

It's not like that at every school. ****, I'm almost half way through it and I haven't had to write a single discharge summary. Medical students calling consults? They'd tell me to put the doctor on the phone. I do H&Ps and progress notes that no one reads. Who the **** does anything based on a plan written by an M3? What resident or attending has time to sit down and read that ****? They cosign it and move on a second later.

Right now I basically shadow the surgeon during clinic and act as a glorified permanent retractor while in the OR. I round in the morning on his inpatients and write notes that he doesn't read. It seems like a lot of 3rd years on this forum think they actually do something of value for the team. Maybe my experience is aberrant.

Strange, I'm on inpatient family and it's expected that we present the patients that we write notes on when we round with the attending, as well as present our admissions to the resident and then the attending along with a plan. Does anyone act on our specific plan? No, but we do get feedback on what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. I'd much rather learn how to assess, come up with some semblance of a plan, and present it now when it doesn't matter than as an intern where it does matter.

 

[ijn]

Feedback? What's that? Rounds so far on this clerkship have consisted of the surgeon walking into the room for 3 minutes and leaving without touching the patient. Stopping to ask the medical student to present his or her findings would be unusual and an inefficient use of time. Can't keep the OR waiting.

 

[KnuxNole]

From my experience in rotations, I probably add a small amount of value, but it's in the benefit of the student, since it's not like the residents need you to do stuff(i.e if you weren't there they wouldn't panic/be dysfunctional). I could be the student who doesn't write the H+P, doesn't touch a patient and go ghost, but that would do nothing for my clinical education. I don't think people view doing H+Ps, coming up with plans, and writing notes to be scut. That's like standard MS3 stuff. BUT, it's like playing doctor. The patients are "yours" but an intern writes the orders, and covers for the student. I do think that a student helping interns write daily notes is good for freeing up some of the tasks in their large checklists. I don't mind helping residents out to save time, since finishing things faster = leave faster/eat earlier/impromptu lecture. Real scut is BS though 😛

As far as notes goes, most residents just cosign, or tell me not to write a plan, but for me to tell it to the attending, and have them write that part. Some residents don't even read the note, which is kinda scary. The rationale is "Well he wrote a few strong notes, I'm sure he's competent". Hopefully I didn't bring any lawsuits 🙁

I might have said this in my earlier post, but if this guy picks the easy rotation, but still tries to learn, what's the harm? Longer hours means poop, taking calls doesn't = more learning. If there is the opportunity to see patients, and discuss a plan, and practice writing notes, that's key for a MS3 education on the wards.

 

[45408]

It's not like that at every school. ****, I'm almost half way through it and I haven't had to write a single discharge summary. Medical students calling consults? They'd tell me to put the doctor on the phone. I do H&Ps and progress notes that no one reads. Who the **** does anything based on a plan written by an M3? What resident or attending has time to sit down and read that ****? They cosign it and move on a second later.

Right now I basically shadow the surgeon during clinic and act as a glorified permanent retractor while in the OR. I round in the morning on his inpatients and write notes that he doesn't read. It seems like a lot of 3rd years on this forum think they actually do something of value for the team. Maybe my experience is aberrant.

Depended on the rotation. On my surgery rotation, my H&P was the one that went in the chart, and I carried the consult pager when I was on call (and we had Q4 in-house call). I had clearly delineated duties for traumas (removing clothes, rolling patient, examining the pt's back, +/- doing a rectal, placing Foley, doing the fem stick for blood). I didn't do any D/C summaries as an M3, but I did all of mine as a sub-I and almost all of them on the entire team as an intern.

 

[VenusinFurs]

Hey guys,

So i am interested in either Anesthesia or Rads...since our school doesn't have its own hospital we rotate at different community hospitals throughout the area. Some are hard to get good evals at, some are very easy to get good evals at but no real good teaching and no residents to deal with. I've been doing my rotations at the easiest hospitals and it has been a vacation. I have hardly worked more than 8 hours a day and I usually work 4-6 hours a day at the most. For my surgery rotation, I worked 8 hour days with an hour of lunch in between.

My question is will this bite me in the ass later on? I know i may be a ****ty intern, but atleast I'll hopefully be a ****ty intern with a good residency spot assuming i do well on these shelf exams...?

Have you done medicine yet?

 

[Siggy]

Feedback? What's that? Rounds so far on this clerkship have consisted of the surgeon walking into the room for 3 minutes and leaving without touching the patient. Stopping to ask the medical student to present his or her findings would be unusual and an inefficient use of time. Can't keep the OR waiting.

The hospital I'm doing most of my M3 rotations at is really good at incorporating students into the team. For surgery, we wrote the notes, presented to the attendings on rounds (between surgeries if need be). The form notes for surgery included a box specifically for the senior resident to comment in and the attending to comment in.

For inpatient family medicine, the census isn't normally that high per team, so it gives some time for teaching during rounds. It sounds like your rotation site looks at taking students on as a burden than an opportunity to teach.

From what I've seen on IM, FP, and Surg, the value of third year comes down to two things. Knowing your treatment/diagnostic options, and seeing patients in the wild.

 

[ijn]

The hospital I'm doing most of my M3 rotations at is really good at incorporating students into the team. For surgery, we wrote the notes, presented to the attendings on rounds (between surgeries if need be). The form notes for surgery included a box specifically for the senior resident to comment in and the attending to comment in.

For inpatient family medicine, the census isn't normally that high per team, so it gives some time for teaching during rounds. It sounds like your rotation site looks at taking students on as a burden than an opportunity to teach.

From what I've seen on IM, FP, and Surg, the value of third year comes down to two things. Knowing your treatment/diagnostic options, and seeing patients in the wild.

Sounds like I'm going to be a horrible intern based on how ****ty my program is at including students. Good thing residencies won't know that and just see numbers when I'm applying.

 

[45408]

Sounds like I'm going to be a horrible intern based on how ****ty my program is at including students. Good thing residencies won't know that and just see numbers when I'm applying.

They won't?

I know that my program is quite familiar with the surrounding schools, and I'm sure most residency programs take your school into some consideration.

 

[ijn]

They won't?

I know that my program is quite familiar with the surrounding schools, and I'm sure most residency programs take your school into some consideration.

There's no way PDs on the West/East coast programs know anything about my school. It's bottom tier in the middle of fly over country.

 

[45408]

There's no way PDs on the West/East coast programs know anything about my school. It's bottom tier in the middle of fly over country.

That tells them something too....

 

[ijn]

That tells them something too....

The astronomic step scores and nothing but honors will tell them something too... 😎

 

[VenusinFurs]

Do an IM rotation at some place that includes students more but where they aren't bitchy. (Usually bitchy =/= more student involvement in my experience). If you can't schedule that at your school, maybe do a visiting IM rotation towards the end of your 4th year at a school with a decent IM program. No, hear me out: you need to kind of have some good medicine exposure to get through your transitional year. You need to at least have dipped your toes into how to manage all of 'em CHFers and COPDers.

 

[KnuxNole]

What if he does a surgery prelim?

Doing an IM sub-I is still a good idea, but just saying 😛

 

[VenusinFurs]

What if he does a surgery prelim?

Doing an IM sub-I is still a good idea, but just saying 😛

No that's my point. I'm saying do a visiting AI in medicine just to learn enough to survive prelim. Even a surgery prelim is going to involve the basics of medicine.

 

[45408]

No that's my point. I'm saying do a visiting AI in medicine just to learn enough to survive prelim. Even a surgery prelim is going to involve the basics of medicine.

You can change that to "definitely."

 

[JustPlainBill]

It's not like that at every school. ****, I'm almost half way through it and I haven't had to write a single discharge summary. Medical students calling consults? They'd tell me to put the doctor on the phone. I do H&Ps and progress notes that no one reads. Who the **** does anything based on a plan written by an M3? What resident or attending has time to sit down and read that ****? They cosign it and move on a second later.

Right now I basically shadow the surgeon during clinic and act as a glorified permanent retractor while in the OR. I round in the morning on his inpatients and write notes that he doesn't read. It seems like a lot of 3rd years on this forum think they actually do something of value for the team. Maybe my experience is aberrant.

This sounds so familiar -- went through the same thing....my school used the shelf exams as barrier exams and if you failed the exam but passed the rotation, even with honors -- you failed and had to repeat the entire rotation....so everyone focused on the shelf, the studs did both and may have actually learned...a lot of us came out feeling like we didn't learn jack...